Serie A exclusively on IMG’s OTT service in Latin America after 'no Fox bid'

Soccer - 16 Aug 2018

Author: Martin Ross

By Martin Ross

Exclusive live coverage of Serie A in Latin America will be shown this season on Serie A Pass, the new over-the-top subscription service developed by IMG, the agency that holds the international media rights to the Italian top flight for the next three seasons.

IMG recently announced the launch of Serie A Pass ahead of the start of the 2018-19 season this weekend and it has now emerged that it will be the only place to watch games in Latin America.

Coverage will be priced at $8.99 per month across the region (or $59.99 per year).

During the previous three-year cycle, Fox Sports held Serie A rights across Latin America (including Brazil), and sub-licensed some rights to fellow pay-TV sports broadcaster ESPN.

Ioris Francini, co-president of WME and IMG, told Sportcal: “We received no offer from the incumbent broadcaster (Fox) which is very surprising.”

He continued: “What we are doing in Latin America is following up on our commitments to Serie A. If there are markets where there are no broadcast partners, [then] we will have a solution that will enable the full consumption of every single Serie A game, plus archive and ancillary programming etc., in the region.”

It is understood that there was not a competitive offer for the rights from ESPN, amid concerns that the two heavyweight broadcasters have been teaming up in a bid to drive down the value of rights deals.

IMG, buoyed by the level of transfer spending by Serie A clubs (notably on Latin American players), has therefore decided to retain the rights for its new service and on the back of the building up of its own OTT platform in the last 18 months.

The Serie A Pass product, which will show all games live, match replays, magazine and archive programming, coincides with the launch of Strive, a direct-to-consumer OTT service in Scandinavia showing games from Serie A and LaLiga.

Francini pointed to Netflix’s subscription base of over 6 million in Brazil as evidence of disruption in the region, adding: “There are many groups which are looking – whether it is in Mexico or pockets of South America or Brazil – at launching over-the-top services in entertainment or other areas.

“There is a lot of different sports content that is about to be made available in the market in Latin America. The broader opportunity, as we’ve seen in other markets, to find the right time to disrupt…well that time may come in the next two or three months. Perhaps some of the local broadcasters will do what ESPN did in the United States (to launch their own OTT service and go very wide with a low price point) but we haven’t seen any signs of that yet.”

In addition to live coverage behind a pay wall, there will be free clips of Serie A available in Latin America on the league’s Facebook and YouTube channels as part of a marketing campaign to drive fans to the OTT service.

Adam Kelly, senior vice-president of worldwide sales at IMG Media, told Sportcal: “It’s fundamentally important, not just for us as a business but also for our obligations to rights-holders, that we are showing the market that there is a minimum value that we can achieve.”

He said that if broadcasters can’t match the “minimum value” then IMG has “the technical capabilities to deliver direct-to-consumer and achieve value.”

Kelly added: “The broadcasters in this particular region are leaving the door open to disruption. For now we’re stepping into this role but you could very quickly see others stepping in when this vacuum is present.”

His stance was supported by Francini, who remarked: “The market is going to change and I’m not sure we’re just going to be passively observing this change in the market. We’ve been propelled into playing a major role in doing this and it’s all very exciting. We’re looking at this with the sense of great opportunity.”

IMG had already announced that Serie A Pass would operate in “over 20 territories” during the 2018-19 season, but that number will now increase given the decision to retain the live rights in Latin America. The service will also be available in the Indian subcontinent and Vietnam, and perhaps certain European territories, but as a service that is “complementary” to rights deals struck with broadcasters.

Serie A Pass (www.seriea-pass.com) is available on desktop, tablet and mobile and via Apps on IOS and Android devices to include Chromecast and Apple airplay.